"Sorry, Mr. Lewis, but I'm going to interject for a moment to explain how voting will work, in case I run out of time later," Otto said.

A drawer opened in the pedestal, and Otto pulled out several pieces of paper. He then tossed hem to everyone in the room. Holding it, they noticed that the sheets displayed the Culpability Rules they had learned about back at the hotel.

Otto chucked a pencil at everyone. "Just write the name of who you're voting for on the back of that paper and chuck it in the middle of the room, like so..." Otto wrote something on his paper and then threw it. It bounced off Koichi's face and landed on the floor.

"Kyle took the blimp over the auditorium, sending a rope down a hole in the ceiling to enter before we did. He took a suit while we were still at the other end of the hallway, where it was too dark to see the lockers anyway. Then he headed for the reactor, where he found the old blunt and... well, accidentally received a cut to his suit, it would have been a mess in there. He received a lethal dose of radiation as result, and so wanted... to take an easier way out. He went back into the decontamination room and privately asked someone in the control room to lower the temperature to an extreme, and then perhaps to also bring his body back to the blimp. This person, wanting to be merciful, did so while everyone else was hiding from the fake bomb threat."

"They then carried Kyle out of the decontamination room and put his body into ReactorBot, who carried him out to the auditorium. Sometime later the 'killer' left the control room early and headed back to the auditorium, where they carried Kyle's body back up to the blimp via the rope. After putting Kyle back in his room, they set the blimp's auto-pilot to return the blimp to the tunnel entrance, and then went back down the rope to go to the auditorium again, where Koichi found them."

"Climbing the rope would have left grime on their hands... which they did not have a chance to clean off after returning to the auditorium, not after getting some more on their hands due to climbing back down again. After finding Kyle's body with everyone else and moving to investigate the captain's room, they had just one chance to clean the incriminating evidence of their hands, and so took it. They used the bottle of ottopoison they found in place of water."

"Because it's a suitably dramatic transition to thenpost-trial," Otto said, "Wait, uhh... I mean, since I'm not certain who did it, a vote to decide who we think the killer is seems reasonable."

"I want a guarantee this time," Keri said, also glaring at Otto. "No executions, no punishments, no consequences. Especially not with the truth of this case revealed: whoever did this did so only to allow Kyle a more peaceful death than he was otherwise inevitably going to have anyway in just an hour."

"I second Keri," Bryan spoke up, looking at Otto as well. "I'm tired of all the killing... I just want to go home, and so do all of you, I'm pretty sure. And with the likely chain of events being a mercy kill... whoever killed him doesn't deserve death. They gave him a much more peaceful death, in this case."

"I mean, I can't exactly guarantee anything," Otto said, disinterestedly. "For all I know, one of you is planning to take matters in their own hands. But I personally see little reason to execute Mr. Crawford's killer... If this is truly how everything happened, I'm certain Kyle wouldn't have wanted that..."

"Kyle took the blimp over the auditorium, sending a rope down a hole in the ceiling to enter before we did. He took a suit while we were still at the other end of the hallway, where it was too dark to see the lockers anyway. Then he headed for the reactor, where he found the old blunt and... well, accidentally received a cut to his suit, it would have been a mess in there. He received a lethal dose of radiation as result, and so wanted... to take an easier way out. He went back into the decontamination room and privately asked someone in the control room to lower the temperature to an extreme, and then perhaps to also bring his body back to the blimp. This person, wanting to be merciful, did so while everyone else was hiding from the fake bomb threat."

"They then carried Kyle out of the decontamination room and put his body into ReactorBot, who carried him out to the auditorium. Sometime later the 'killer' left the control room early and headed back to the auditorium, where they carried Kyle's body back up to the blimp via the rope. After putting Kyle back in his room, they set the blimp's auto-pilot to return the blimp to the tunnel entrance, and then went back down the rope to go to the auditorium again, where Koichi found them."

"Climbing the rope would have left grime on their hands... which they did not have a chance to clean off after returning to the auditorium, not after getting some more on their hands due to climbing back down again. After finding Kyle's body with everyone else and moving to investigate the captain's room, they had just one chance to clean the incriminating evidence of their hands, and so took it. They used the bottle of ottopoison they found in place of water."

"I do believe right now, you are our prime suspect. Not that you have done anything criminal, should that be the case...well, this goes without saying, but I think the killer has no downside to confessing at this rate anyways."

"So everyone is settled on their final answer? Hm." Oscar crosses his arms, eyes narrowed at Koichi. "Between that wonderful run-down from Keri and all we've deduced so far? I agree that there's few options left, but I've little else to add at the moment. Still one final vote left for us, yes? I'd be happy to discuss this in further detail after we get this over with. Adds to the... 'dramatic tension,' as Otto said."

Oscar picks up his pencil and scribbles a name down. He then folds it in half, flashing just the faintest of smiles before flicking it toward the center of the room.

Keri sighed, and wrote a name on her paper with clear reluctance. "No electronics, no automated system... I am trusting that nothing can go wrong with this," she said, hesitating for a brief moment and then following Oscar's lead, throwing the piece of paper into the centre of the room.

"Let's hope nothing goes wrong..." A few moments after Keri and Oscar had thrown their papers into the center of the room, Bryan writes a name on his own sheet of paper, and with reluctance evident in his expression, he tosses it as well.

Urumi alternated between glaring at her paper and eyeing Otto suspiciously for a bit, but after seeing the others submit their votes, she set her jaw, scribbled something on the ballot quickly, and flung it off her podium to join the others before crossing her arms huffily.

“The events of the murder began before we embarked for our investigation. Kyle had prepared a radiation suit, and once we had left the airship, he piloted it over the auditorium. He dropped down a rope, hiding it behind a pile of rubble, and then climbed down to the auditorium, where the radiation suit was waiting. He pulled it on and then hurried to the reactor, hoping to find evidence regarding the past case.

“Once inside the reactor, he found the old blunt, but somehow he received an awful cut, most likely from a piece of rubble. By then it was already too late, so he called the killer, asking him to give him a less painful demise. …The killer agreed.

“Kyle stepped into the decontamination room and warned everyone in the control room of a so-called ‘bomb’ in the room. Everyone rushed into a closet except the killer, who stayed behind and used the decontamination room controls… to freeze Kyle to death.

“Once it was done, the killer took Kyle’s body and hid it in the ReactorBot, which then left for the auditorium. The killer opened the only empty closet door, appearing the join the rest of us as we re-entered the room, none the wiser of what had just taken place.

“Later on, the killer left the control room early and walked to the auditorium. They retrieved Kyle’s body from the ReactorBot, took of their suit, and climbed up to the blimp with Kyle in tow. After returning him to his room and putting on the music, they set the auto-pilot to return the blimp to its original position. But in doing so, they got Pringles dust all over their hands…

“With the auto-pilot set, they didn’t have time to wash them, so they hurried down the rope, putting their suit back on as quickly as possible. Then the killer joined the group and ‘discovered’ the body… but there was still the matter of the grime on their hands.

“They finally saw their chance to wash off during the investigation, using the Ottopoison bottle they had noticed earlier. But before they had time to hide the empty bottle, Koichi spotted them. He managed to hide his intentions at the time, but it didn’t last…

“So in the end, all the killer did was follow through on the final request on their friend…” Keri explained solemnly. “That’s the truth of this case. So, it’s time to end this. It’s time to take your bow, Oscar Lewis!”

Spoiler: Post-Trial

“Alright, let’s reveal the votes!” Otto said.

He carefully unfolded the balls of paper, staring at the names written across them. Eventually, the screen blazed to life.

One name appeared: “Oscar Lewis” with six tick marks next to it…

Then, a second name appeared: “Mickey Mouse.” A single tick mark followed it.

Everyone exchanged confused glances as Oscar stifled a chuckle.

“Alright, enough fun and games!” Otto shouted, “The group has spoken, Mr. Lewis, and we think you are guilty! You’d best confess now, or you can say goodbye to your clean bedsheets!”

“Well, I could hardly live with that, could I?” Oscar said, “Well, either way, I suppose the show’s over now. You were all right on the mark. I killed Kyle… at his own request.”

“So, that is the truth, then?” Koichi asked, “…I suppose it is time I explained myself too…”

“Well, we still have plenty of time until the ship leaves,” Otto said, “We might as well pass the time somehow…”

"Ah, good. I was hoping I could count on you all to vote correctly... pfft..." Oscar snorts as he steals one last look at the screen.

"I-I'm sorry, it'd just mean very little if I was a part of the majority. But... that's the truth of the matter. Congratulations on finding out the truth yet again, I'm the 'killer' this time! Well, as close as you could get to one, at any rate..."

"Oh, not too eager to take another slap to the face? That's understandable." Oscar smirks at Koichi before turning toward the rest of the group. He still keeps up a small smile as he speaks, despite the grim topic.

"I believe you all have the gist of it, but might as well hear it straight from the horse's mouth. It was while my group was investigating the control room that Kyle reached out to me. The whole thing was... very sudden. Immediately he'd informed that he was dying, said he'd forged ahead of to check out the reactor so none of us would have to risk going in, but unfortunately he'd torn his suit on a piece of rubble. Despite my offer to help, Kyle was sure this was it for him. But he couldn't go out like this, nothing so painful as radiation poisoning. Which is why he'd reached out to me, I was to... speed things up." He stops to clear his throat, covering up a subtle whimper.

"...ah, excuse me. From there things went as we've discussed. Kyle bought us some time with that supposed bomb warning, giving him time to enter the decontamination room while I fiddled with the temperature. I'd set the room as low as it could go, and just like that... he was dead in only a couple minutes. Far quicker than however long the radiation would take. From there I was to take his body back to the blimp while it was still above the facility. Keri explained the next few steps well enough. Twice, actually. ReactorBot, auditorium, rope, blimp. Up above I set up that scene we all later stumbled upon as a group. Kyle resting peacefully at his desk, papers strewn about and listening peacefully to his favorite tracks. The man was owed at least that much..."

"...and of course that brings us to the mess on the steering wheel, stained my hands while I was setting up the autopilot. Honest question for Otto, why in hell was a robot eating chips? I'd have broken my neck trying to jump off the blimp after it began moving, so I had to save that worry for later. Specifically during our final investigation. Something else I'd kept hidden is that I knew exactly where that Ottopoison was hiding because of our adventures in the captain's quarters earlier that day. Grimy hands, a bottle of deadly liquid? Cut me some slack, it was the closest thing at the time and cleaned me up in the end, but being spotted yet again meant I had to play it off like that was a new finding. Things really could have gone better."

Oscar claps his hands together at the end of it all, smile looking a good deal more forced than it had at the beginning. "So, that's my story! How it happened and how I became involved! There was... a number ways this could have gone, but here we are! Haha... ha..."

"I see...as deduced, Kyle's murder was nothing more than admirable compassion. Otto, as far as I can tell, was very close to Kyle. Even as a machine, he must understand that this is not a situation that warrants a traditional punishment...so hopefully you have no reason to worry over that."

Koichi scratched his head. "Throughout this entire trip, you were always quite the dramatic, weren't you? I believe at a certain point, you could have confessed without fear of retaliation. But, you kept us thinking until the very end..."

Bryan nods in understanding as he intently listens to Oscar's explanation, absorbing every word. "Gotcha, gotcha... That was a good thing to do, Oscar. You gave him a way more peaceful and happy death than from radiation poisoning. But still, puede él descansar en paz..." he sadly states.

"And yeah, what you did definitely doesn't warrant an execution. It was the right thing to do, as hard as it must've been. Plus, you went the extra mile and put his body where he would probably want it the most. Giving it a peaceful place and all. That was honestly really compassionate and kind of ya," he mused with a grin.

"My, how the two of you play this up. I'm simply a man caught up in unusual circumstances. Certainly you'd have done the same in my place?" Oscar chides the two, but can't help grinning at the compliments.

"...alright, perhaps I simply held off on confessing because I love the attention. But I still think we ought to be paying our respects to someone else," he says a touch more seriously. "Kyle, the one who went this far just to snag a single piece of evidence for us? You might not like what happened afterwards, but... with that kind of bravery, where would we be without him?"

"Well, frankly, I would have confessed, as that is what I did...regardless, you did a good thing for Kyle."

Koichi crossed his arms. "However, I have a limited knowledge of the origin of the game. With what I know, my guess is Abby contacted these two, or even this organization, to hold this game in the first place. Kyle and Otto would occasionally mention 'other cruises.' Perhaps they have gone through this before..? If that's the case, then this is not their first game...even if it was, Kyle did this to become a pilot, no?"

...

"...Well, that is not to say that his recent actions were not admirable."

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Bryan simply rolls his eyes in response to Oscar, though in a more amused, playful manner than annoyed. "Weeeeeell, I'm just speakin' the truth. It was a good thing to do. And hey, we eventually figured it out! Though we had some... events happen during the trial..." he glumly added as he glanced towards Jack's empty podium. "Anyway, yeah. What Kyle did was really brave. I'm definitely thankful."

He then crosses his arms, looking over at Koichi. "And yeah, good point... Though maybe the other cruises were just ordinary luxary cruises and not, y'know, a killing game...?" he hopefully suggested.

"Now what a thing to say! I'd love to hear if you've knowledge of any other fathers Abby would round seventeen people up and kill to avenge, but I'd like to think this trip was a special case," Oscar huffs. "I'd hope a fledgling pilot wouldn't intentionally involve himself in this kind of thing, anyway..."

Last edited by lcarus on Fri Aug 31, 2018 7:23 am, edited 2 times in total.

"Okay, so killing games haven't happened in the past. That's a relief..." Bryan remarked to no one in particular. "And wait a sec, you can taste stuff?" he asked, turning to Otto with a brow raised in curiosity.

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